Lukewarm enthusiasm

The leadership of an international organisation is up for grabs, but does anyone want it?
The Stability Pact for South East Europe has been in a permanent state of adolescence ever since it was set up in 1999, at the EU's initiative, as an attempt to promote regional co-operation and integration in the Balkans. It is based in Brussels with a satellite office in Thessaloniki, but in February 2008 it will be handed over to the countries of the Balkans to do with as they see fit.
It will then be renamed the Regional Co-operation Council (RCC) and will be located somewhere in the Balkans – Sarajevo and Belgrade are the two cities most frequently mentioned.
A replacement for the Austrian Erhard Busek, the Stability Pact's special co-ordinator and EU special envoy, will be picked in the early summer: foreign ministers of the region meet on 10 May and heads of state and government on 11 May. Busek's successor will become the secretary-general of the RCC. Already three names have emerged as likely contenders. Mihai-Ra˘zvan Ungureanu, who will soon be replaced as Romanian foreign minister, is the most high profile.
Having a Romanian at the head of the organisation has the merit of signalling to sceptics in the western Balkans that the organisation is not a substitute for EU membership. Former foreign minister of Serbia and current Stability Pact diplomat Goran Svilanovic´ is also a possible candidate. But the candidature of Hido Biöcˇevic´, state secretary for political affairs at the Croatian foreign ministry, might have a different outcome, or no outcome at all. Croatia is renowned for its lukewarm enthusiasm for regional integration and cynical diplomats suggest that having a Croat at the head of the organisation would be a devilishly cunning way of ensuring that ‘regional ownership' is stillborn.